Paul Wilbur Klipsch (March 9, 1904 – May 5, 2002) was an American engineer and high fidelity audio pioneer, known for developing a high-efficiency folded horn loudspeaker. Unsatisfied with the sound quality of

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

s and early speaker systems, Klipsch used scientific principles to develop a corner horn speaker that sounded more lifelike than its predecessors. Klipsch logo

The Klipschorn, which today is still manufactured and sold worldwide, proved popular. The resulting acoustics career of Klipsch spanned from 1946, when he founded one of the first U.S. loudspeaker companies, to 2000 when the Journal of the

Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products ...

published one of his papers. He died on May 5, 2002 at the age of 98. Fred Klipsch, former Klipsch owner and chairman and cousin to founder Paul Wilbur Klipsch, said, “Paul was a verifiable genius who could have chosen any number of vocations, but the world sounds a lot better because he chose audio.”

Early life and education

Klipsch's interest in engineering was influenced by his father, an instructor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Although he was only 12 when his father died, Klipsch's interest in science and engineering endured. He built his first speaker using a mailing tube and a pair of earphones at the age of 15, which was a year before the first public radio broadcast. After graduating from El Paso High School, he enrolled at New Mexico State University (NMSU) where he played cornet in the university band and was an award-winning member of the school rifle team. He credits his four years as a member of the Aggie Band for developing his love and knowledge of music and musical instruments. Klipsch received a Bachelor of Science in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from New Mexico State University in 1926, and an EE (

Engineer's degree An engineer's degree is an advanced academic degree in engineering which is conferred in Europe, some countries of Latin America, North Africa and a few institutions in the United States. The degree may require a thesis but always requires a non-a ...

) in electrical engineering from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1934.

Career

Following graduation from NMSU, Klipsch went to work for General Electric designing radios that were then sold to RCA. In 1928, he responded to a notice on the GE bulletin board. This resulted in a new job maintaining electric locomotives in Chile for three years before entering graduate school at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. After receiving his EE Degree, Klipsch worked as a

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

for a Texas oil company. He later served in the U.S. Army during World War II, earning the rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

. It was during his service at the Southwest Proving Grounds in Hope, Arkansas, that Klipsch refined his corner horn speaker design. Visitors to his officer's quarters were amazed by the lifelike reproduction and encouraged Klipsch to start his own manufacturing business. He received a patent on his loudspeaker design in 1945, registered the name Klipsch & Associates in 1946, and made each loudspeaker himself until he hired his first employee in 1948. During a videotaped interview in 1999, Klipsch claimed that he did not, in fact, name the Klipschorn himself. He said that he made a sales call to a man in New York City during the first years of operating Klipsch & Associates and, surprisingly, the business prospect already knew about the revolutionary new loudspeaker. "We've heard all about your corner horn," the man said. "We call it the Klipschorn."

Legacy

In 1978, Paul W. Klipsch was awarded the

's second highest honor, the Silver Medal, for his contributions to speaker design and distortion measurement. In 1997, he was inducted into the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame. In 2004, at the International

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

(CES), he was inducted into the

Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame, founded by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), honors leaders whose creativity, persistence, determination and personal charisma helped to shape the industry and made the consumer electronics marketpla ...

New Mexico State University

Klipsch received an honorary LL.D. from New Mexico State University (NMSU) in 1981. The College of Electrical and Computer Engineering was renamed the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in his honor in 1995. The Paul W. and Valerie S. Klipsch Museum was established and dedicated October 1997.

Eccentricities

Klipsch related that when he was developing a smaller speaker for use between two Klipschorns, an acquaintance declared that he couldn't possibly introduce it to the public because it was in direct violation of Klipsch's own corner horn principles, and amounted to acoustic heresy. "The hell I can't," Klipsch said. "And that's exactly what I'm going to call it!" While the official company motto is “The Ultimate Sound Experience,” the unofficial one is “Bullshit.” Klipsch started using the slogan after reading a competitor’s loudspeaker ad that made claims of supposed “breakthroughs.” After that, he wore a yellow "Bullshit" button behind his lapel and showed it to anyone he felt was making an outlandish claim.

Patents

* Stock-and-barrel assembly for firearms. US patent 2205982. Klipsch, P.W., 6/25/1940. * Wave synthesizing network. US patent 2230803. Klipsch, P.W., 2/4/1941. * Electrical prospecting with alternating current. US patent 2231013. Klipsch, P.W., 2/11/1941. * Recording seismic waves. US patent 2232612. Klipsch, P.W., 2/18/1941. * Seismic prospecting. US patent 2232613. Klipsch, P.W., 2/18/1941. * Equalizer. US patent 2238023. Klipsch, P.W., 4/8/1941. * Electrical prospecting. US patent 2243428. Klipsch, P.W., 4/27/1941. * Mixing circuit for electrical prospecting. US patent 2251549. Klipsch, P.W., 8/5/1941. * Method of electrical prospecting. US patent 2293024. Klipsch, P.W., 8/11/1942. * Firearm vibration control. US patent 2302699. Klipsch, P.W., 11/14/1942. * Horn for loud-speaker. US patent 2310243. Klipsch, P.W., 2/9/1943. * Loudspeaker. US patent 2373692. Klipsch, P.W., 4/17/1945. * Rotating band tester. US patent 2450003. Klipsch, P.W., 9/28/1948. * Loud-speaker horn. US patent 2537141. Klipsch, P.W., 1/9/1951. * Crossover filter network. US patent 2612558. Klipsch, P.W., 9/30/1952. * Loudspeaker (Rebel). US patent 2731101. Klipsch, P.W., 9/30/1952. * Logarithmic converter circuit. US patent 3330966. Klipsch, P.W., 7/11/1967. * Small dimension low frequency folded exponential horn loudspeaker with unitary sound path and loudspeaker system including same. US patent 4138594. Klipsch, P.W., 2/6/1979. * Low frequency folded exponential horn loudspeaker apparatus with bifurcated sound path. US patent 4210223. Gillum, G. C./ Klipsch, P.W., 7/1/1980. * Crossover network for optimizing efficiency and improving response of loudspeaker system. US patent 4237340. Klipsch, P.W., 12/2/1980. * Anechoic chamber arrangement. US patent 4387786. Klipsch, P.W/Hunter, J. R., 6/14/1983.

References

External links

Official Klipsch Audio Technologies website1980 Interview transcript
of Klipsch by

, retrieved August 8, 2008 * "Horn for Loudspeaker", filed February 1940, issued February 1943 {{DEFAULTSORT:Klipsch, Paul W. 1904 births 2002 deaths American acoustical engineers American electrical engineers People from Hope, Arkansas United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II People from Elkhart, Indiana 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors